Cheryl Chase, founder and executive director of the Intersex Society of North America, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20.
Chase's talk, "Love With A Ruler: Intersexuality and Social Justice," will be presented on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Building, room 150, and on Oct. 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the University Memorial Center, Aspen Room. A reception will precede Thursday聮s lecture, and discussion will follow both presentations.
Intersexuality refers to the medical diagnoses of people born with anatomical sexual variations, or mixed male and female sexual characteristics.
Chase will share her own story of being born an intersex child who was surgically altered at a young age and the social, psychological and physical issues she has encountered since then. She has devoted her life to making a difference for the thousands of intersex children born each year and formed the Intersex Society of North American in 1993.
The Society is an education, advocacy and peer support organization for individuals born with atypical sexual anatomy. According to their statistics, five intersex babies per day are surgically altered at the presiding doctor's discretion and a
national debate is growing about the ethics of that practice. For more information, visit their Web site at .
"Until last year, doctors thought surgery could make any child into a boy or a girl," said organizer Lynn W. Stanley. "They are now listening to ISNA and are changing their minds about how they will treat intersex children and their families. ISNA advocates are replacing the surgical-centered model with a new model of patient-centered care."
Chase speaks nationally on the subject of medical and social mistreatment of intersex children. She has made presentations at many venues, including the American Psychological Association, George Washington University Medical School, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and the American Psychiatric Association.
Her writing also has appeared in a variety of scholarly venues, including the Journal of Clinical Ethics and Pediatric Nursing.
Chase's presentations are sponsored by the CU-Boulder School of Education, the GLBT Resource Center, Women's Studies Program, Women's Resource Center, Colorado Daily, Boulder Gender Support Group, Boulder Pride, Boulder Boyz, Weird Sisters, Metropolitan Community Church of Boulder, Children's Hospital Neonatal/Perinatal Education and Research Conference and the Program in Health Care Ethics, Humanities and Law at CU Health Sciences.